Classroom Resources

IMPORTANT NOTE: You can find updated materials for the second edition here. The materials on this page and its sub-pages were designed for the first edition of Hearing the Movies. We will not remove anything from this page but we will also not maintain or update it in future.

---> NEW: A QUIZ BANK with two versions each for seven quizzes based on Glossary terms (used for a course during summer 2009). As a Word document: Quiz bank. The study guides are in another Word document: Quiz_guides. <---

Go to Syllabi for sample syllabi in semester course designs where Hearing the Movies is the principal text.

Go to Options for other course designs, including quarter terms and summer sessions.

Go to Supporting Materials for screen stills, supplementary examples and analyses, as well as templates for assignments, quizzes, and exams.

Go to Options for ideas on how to use Hearing the Movies as a secondary required text or supplementary text.

Go to Comments for notes on some practical matters related to course planning and execution.

Hearing the Movies is designed for easy mapping onto a 15-week semester structure. The book has three parts and fifteen chapters, plus two "interludes" on writing about sound and music in film. See the table of contents below. For a detailed table of contents, with all chapter headings and subheads, see Detailed table of contents.

The four chapters of Part I encourage development of basic listening and viewing skills. Chapter 1 introduces the sound track elements and the concept of an integrated sound track, the aesthetic standard for sound film since the 1930s. Chapter 2 stresses the musicality of the sound track by introducing musical terms that can also be used to describe speech, sound effects, or the sound track as a whole. Chapter 3 turns to sound and music in relation to narrative space and Chapter 4 deals with sound and time. Also see David Neumeyer's brief descriptions used in class notes during spring 2009.

The five chapters of Part II turn attention more narrowly to music and its characteristic treatment in the sound feature film. Chapter 5 discusses general questions of music in relation to film form; chapters 6 and 7 provide scene analyses that illustrate the function of music as a sound track element in common sequence types, including opening and end credit sequences, as well as montage/fantasy scenes. Film style in broader and narrower senses (genre in the first case, themes and topics in the second) is addressed in chapter 8, and chapter 9 provides illustrations through analyses of dialogue scenes, love scenes, and action scenes.

Part III lays out a concise history of music and film sound organized around technological innovations and their role in film production and exhibition, and an Afterword comments on the current—and prospective—situation for music and sound in film production and in other venues, particularly those that are Internet-based.

Table of Contents for HEARING THE MOVIES: MUSIC AND SOUND IN FILM HISTORY

PART I: The Sound Track and Film Narrative: Basic Terms and Concepts

Introduction to Part I

Chapter 1: The Sound Track and Narrative

Chapter 2: The Musicality of the Sound Track: Concepts and Terminology

Chapter 3: Music, Sound, and the Space of Narrative: Concepts and Terminology

Chapter 4: Music, Sound, and Time

Interlude: Writing About Film Sound: Analysis and Description

PART II: Music, Film Form, and Film Style

Introduction to Part II

Chapter 5: Music in Film Form

Chapter 6: Music in Main Title and End-Credit Sequences

Chapter 7: Music in Performance and Montage Scenes

Chapter 8: Film Style and the Sound Track

Chapter 9: Music in Character and Action Scenes

Interlude: Writing About Film Music: Interpretation

PART III: The Sound Track: A Technological History

Introduction to Part III

Chapter 10: Music and Sound in the Silent Era (1895–1929)

Chapter 11: The Transition to Sound Film (1926–1932)

Chapter 12: Music and the Sound Track in the Classical Studio Era

Chapter 13: The Stereo Sound Track and the Post-Classical Era (1950–1975)

Chapter 14: The New Hollywood, Dolby Stereo, and the Emergence of Sound Design (1975–2000)

Chapter 15: Music and Film Sound Today

Afterword

Glossary

Index